Literary life

Mark Sanderson at large in a world of books.

Mark Sanderson

12:01AM BST 20 Sep 2005

Philip Pullman has written an introduction to a new edition of Milton's Paradise Lost, published by Oxford University Press. As might be expected, the author of His Dark Materials (which takes its title from Book II, line 196 of the epic poem), is as interested in the nature of angels as was Milton.

He points out Milton's detour into "gastro-theology" in Book V - the poet "becomes unnecessarily (it seems to me) literal about whether angels can eat, and if so, what, and what happens to the food once eaten" - and how angels "can experience a gaseous kind of sexual intercourse" in Book VIII.

However, he does not explain why the engravings by Michael Burghers, reproduced from the first illustrated edition of 1688, show the celestial creatures with belly buttons.

The Library of the Institute Of Mechanical Engineers in London's Birdcage Walk was an incongruous venue for this week's launch of Vikram Seth's Two Lives. However, Richard Beswick, his publisher, said that Mr Seth was such a great writer he could even turn a railway timetable into literature.

Having browsed the shelves, Seth claimed to have found the title of his next book: "Joints And Couplings". It was a jolly occasion, although some churls suggested that the absence of champagne could be attributed to the fact that Two Lives had cost Little, Brown £1.3 million.

The best-selling crime novel so far this year is Trace by Patricia Cornwell. According to the latest figures from Nielsen BookScan, the 13th Kay Scarpetta mystery sold 266,005 copies in the 26 weeks ending July 2. John Grisham's The Last Juror sold 213,130 copies and came second; Monday Morning by Kathy Reichs sold 184,834 copies and came third.

Even though Alexander McCall's In the Company of Cheerful Ladies only came fourth, having sold 167,276 copies, he has much to celebrate: combined sales of all his novels in the same period amounted to almost 600,000 copies, earning him the title of "best-selling crime fiction author by volume".

While the authorities work round the clock to pump the water out of New Orleans, authors are racing to be the first to write the story of Hurricane Katrina.

Douglas Brinkley, whose account of John Kerry's time in Vietnam was published last year, has been commissioned to write a book about the disaster by Morrow and Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker, is reported to be hard at work conducting research in the Big Easy. Meanwhile Craig Colten, whose environmental history of the city, An Unnatural History, was published early this year, has been enjoying huge amounts of unexpected publicity.